Alternate Universe MLB; Episode 1: Prince Heads North

Welcome to the Alternate Universe MLB, where things that didn't happen did, and things that did happen didn't.  We begin our adventures with the legacy of one Prince Fielder, and what would have happened if he went to another of his father's teams, the Toronto Blue Jays.

Let us go back in our time machine of choice (mine is the TARDIS) to one week ago, when Prince Fielder was still deciding what Major League city he should make his home for the next 5-10 years.  When visiting Toronto, they roll out the red carpet.  They offer him big dollars, long years, incentives, a lifetime supply of Maple Syrup and the Key to Canada (which it turns out only opens bland beer factories and a safe full of Bryan Adams and Celine Dion records).  He gets to bat after the great Jose Bautista in an already electric lineup (that just added big time slugger Jeff Mathis), and has joined a club with one of the best fanbases in the league.

April rolls around and the new-look (down to the Jerseys, which are damn fly, and I'll get to in an upcoming "In Which I Obsess About Uniforms" column in the near future) Blue Jays are off to a fast start.  Fielder starts to shed a bit of weight to be able to last the entirety of his huge contract he signed with the Jays.  After finding themselves in first place at the end of May, Toronto begins to put its eggs in the Felix Hernandez basket.  They want an Ace who can help put the exclamation point on an already great club.

June 15th, 2012, and the Blue Jays just finished off a deal that sends half their farm to Seattle for King Felix. They also increase the food budget for travel days, which was already getting strained keeping Prince Fielder happy.  Now with both the King and Prince, the Jays are poised for a postseason bid, their first since becoming back-to-back World Series Champions in 1993.

October 3nd, 2012, The Blue Jays wrap up the Division Title, finishing with an even 100 wins, a full 10 games ahead of the 2nd place Yankees.  Felix and Prince both figure into the Cy Young and MVP discussions (respectively), and John Farrell is the clear favorite for Manager of the Year.  Things are going to be tough in the postseason, as the Jays need to take down the two-time AL Pennant winning Texas Rangers, who won the Wild Card.

October 10th, 2012.  In just 3 short games, the Blue Jays finish off the Rangers and look forward to Albert Pujols and the resurgent Angels (did you really expect anything less?).  After many battles in the NL Central, Fielder and Pujols already have a long rivalry.  The Series goes 7 games, with King Felix outdueling Dan Haren in a 2-1 Jays victory.  Toronto is back in the World Series!

October 30th, 2012.  In 6 games, three of which were won by King Felix (who won the World Series MVP and eventually the AL Cy Young), the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series!

This begins a long and storied chapter in the franchises history.  After re-signing Bautista and King Felix to huge extensions, the Great White North becomes a free agent destination for the better part of the '10's.  Prince retires in 2019 after 573 Home Runs and 4 World Series Titles.  He enters the Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 2024.  Like Joe Carter before him, Prince will transcend the game of baseball in Canada, becoming the most beloved ballplayer in Canada.

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Obviously, none of this happened or will happen, but this is the kind of BS I have to write about when the Angels have done jack diddly since signing Pujols and Wilson.  At least Pitchers and Catchers report in few weeks.

Angels Make Their Best Move of 2012

Its only January and the Angels have already made the biggest splash of the 2012/13 offseason.  They re-signed All-Star 2nd Baseman Howie Kendrick (perennial favorite of this site, and many Angels fans) to a 4 year deal worth $33.5 Million.  This effectively takes one of the most prized possessions of the 2012 Free Agent field off the market.

Looking like a 5-tool player (if his power numbers continue to rise) at 2nd base, Kendrick was sure to get a nice big contract after the season.  Now, the Angels have locked him up for what seems to be a bargain (at about $8.4 million a season) for the next 4 years.  Now, anyone on the team who has even sniffed an all-star team, (Kendrick, Weaver, Haren, Pujols, Wilson, Santana, Walden, Hunter, Wells, Bourjos) is locked up with the Angels through at least the end of the 2013 season.  2 whole seasons of the current club could spell trouble for the rest of the AL West.

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Speaking of the rest of the West, the Texas Rangers and Japanese pitching phenom Yu Darvish have still yet to agree on a deal, despite having obtained the exclusive negotiating rights over 20 days ago.  With about 8 days left to sign a contract with the club, Darvish seems to be getting closer and closer to heading back to Japan for at least another season.

Dog Days of Winter

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm not dead, and neither is the site... its just REALLY BORING right now.  With Spring Training still nearly 60 days away, we have nothing to talk about but rumors and heresay, especially with most owners and GM's taking days off for the holidays.

Hopefully we get some news these final weeks leading up to pitchers and catchers reporting to Arizona and Florida. Prince Fielder has to sign with someone, doesn't he?

Oh well, there is plenty of Clippers Basketball to keep me entertained until then...



Its going to be a long 60 Days.

Rangers "Win" Yu Darvish Sweepstakes

First off, lets get one thing out of the way.  I LOVE the team name "Nippon Ham Fighters".  I know that the nickname is just "Fighters", but I love to pretend its "Ham Fighters".  Anyway....

Japanese stud and member of the Nippon Ham Fighters, Yu Darvish, is now off the market.  The Texas Rangers have won the bidding rights to the young phenom for just over $51 Million dollars.  That is just what they give Nippon Ham after the player has signed with the Rangers.  They will still owe whatever they agree to pay Darvish.

Now, I like a hot foreign prospect as much as the next guy, and I'm all for Major League Baseball acquiring the best baseball talent in the world, but I can't help but feel the Rangers have overpaid for Darvish.  Granted, we all saw him dominate in the World Baseball Classic, and how well he has done in Japan, but that doesn't always equal MLB production.  In the WBC, even if the better guys play, they don't always give 100%, its just like extended Spring Training for some of them.  In Japan, guys like Daisuke and Matsui have been would-be Hall of Famers, but get over here and can barely squeak into the All-Star Game.

Many have said Yu Darvish is a different kind of talent, and that could be true, but the only guy who has come to the states for Asia and made a significant impact on the game has been Ichiro, but he has also been crippling the Mariners Payroll for about a decade (well, him and Adrian Beltre), and been in the cellar of the AL West for a good chunk of that time.

Part of me hopes Yu Darvish pays off, I hope he becomes a Top 10 pitcher in baseball and watching him toe the slab every 5 days becomes must-see-tv.  Somehow, though, I doubt that will happen.  I see him being a solid 2nd or 3rd starter, making an All-Star Team or two, and having a good, if forgettable, career.

Oh, but if he can find a way to always have this sweet mustache, he is cool with me:

Tebow: Making the Case for MVP.

Yeah, he lost yesterday to a much better Patriots team, but that still makes him 7-2 as a starter this season.  The Broncos record before Tebow took over as starting Quarterback?  1-4, and they looked out of the playoff picture going into their Week 6 Bye Week.  He (and the re-energized Defense) have now put the Broncos in 1st place in their division.   That's right, 1-4 all the way to a Home Playoff Game.  Sure, there are still a few weeks left in the season, and as of right now, any team in the West is mathematically still able to win that division, but lets assume the Broncos win out, finish 10-6 and get a home playoff game against the Jets or Titans.

They win that game, go on to face the Pats or Steelers in the next round, maybe win, maybe lose.  Either way, this team was destined for a losing season and a high draft pick.  Instead, they implant Tim Tebow during their Bye Week and end up in the second round of the playoffs.

So how do you not put this kid on your MVP Ballots?  Stats aside, he has clearly been incredibly valuable to his team.  Improbable comeback wins, bringing excitement to the stadium and locker room, and, most importantly, taking a team going nowhere to a playoff berth.

Obviously Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are the favorites to win the award at this point, and you could argue that those teams (Saints, Patroits and Packers) would all be much worse without their star QB's, but would they be 1-4 bad?  Would they be 2-8 bad?  Would they be 3-12 bad?

I'm not saying he should WIN the award, his stats just don't back that up, but he should probably be in the Top 5 in MVP votes, maybe even the top 3.  I also don't think any of this will happen, because most MVP voters (in all sports) are too conventional and set in their ways.  It will be the 5 guys with the best stats, guy with the best stats wins.  It will have nothing to do with who is actually valuable to their team, like Tim Tebow.

Clippers Take One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Normally, when your team trades for an All-Star, it should be a happy day for you and your fellow fans. Sadly, when the Clippers trade for an All-Star, most fans can do nothing but let out a sigh and say "here we go again..."

The Los Angeles Clippers agreed to a trade today for New Orleans Hornets superstar Chris Paul, who is in his last year of his deal with the team, and was looking to be traded. Sadly, what the Clippers gave up in return was a future All-Star Guard in Eric Gordon, solid every day starters in Al-Farouq Aminu and Chris Kaman, and a possible #1 Overall pick they had gotten from Minnesota. It's very likely that this will lead to two straight NBA Drafts where the Clippers had the #1 Overall pick, but had traded it away (they traded a pick to Cleveland last year, and that pick turned into the #1 overall pick for 2011, Kyrie Irving from Duke).

As a Clippers fan, we are used to this kind of mismanagement from the front office, but we aren't used to getting an All-Star in return, and before we get all excited about Chris Paul, lets remember a few things: He has just about no cartilage in one of his knees, so how long does he last as an Elite Point Guard in the NBA? He is still only signed through the end of the 2011/12 season, and although he has said he will sign here for at least two years if traded, what are we basing that on? His word?

I know I should be excited, but I'm just not. I was looking forward to watching Eric Gordon grow into a superstar, or who we would take with the #1 pick in the 2012 Draft. Now, I know what I'm going to get. Alley Oops from Chris Paul to Blake Griffin. We win about half our games, make the playoffs and get swept in the first round by the Thunder.

Derek Jeter's Swag: Impossible to Measure

In my favorite news story of an otherwise slow day, it turns out Yankees Shortstop Derek Jeter, who split with "actress" Minka Kelly this past summer, has been thanking his one-night stands in perhaps the best way possible.

After the night of steamy passion (after which, Derek would regale his suitors with fantastical tales of his baseball prowess), he would let the women stay the night at his New York apartment, calling a car for them in the morning (to avoid the quite embarrassing "walk of shame", ever so popular in fictitious accounts of New York City). In the car would be a gift basket, including baseball memorabilia signed by the superstar himself. Apparently, he got caught in this web of awesome by giving a gift basket to the same woman twice (he forgot he had already been with her once before).

Could Derek Jeter be any more of a caricature of a playboy right now? Whats next, his off-the-field apparel is a robe and a tobacco pipe? I love every second of it, and while Derek Jeter has always been one of my favorite players on the field (love his heart and determination, and all those other cliched baseball words), this pretty much confirms that his off-the-field shenanigans are worthy of a place in my heart as well. Its not a life I'd ever want to live, but it warms my heart to know that people actually are out there living their lives like that.